The oil price rout found new victims on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday as BG Group and Chevron revealed profits had tanked.

BG, which is in the process of being sold to Royal Dutch Shell, reported a 65 per cent fall in second quarter profit to £275.5million, while Chevron’s fell 90 per cent.

The oil price has crashed by around 50 per cent since last summer as the shale oil boom in the US, which turned it into the world’s largest fuel exporter, pushed global production higher.

At the same time, the Opec oil cartel of the Middle East did not reduce its supply, resulting in a glut. Fears that Iran could flood the world with its oil stores after the lifting of sanctions next year has also kept the price low, at around $52.8 a barrel yesterday, down from $110 in June last year.

BG’s first-half revenues fell 25 per cent to £5billion but its update was better than the City expected while production rose by nearly a fifth.

It confirmed a 9.22p a share interim dividend, which helped BG’s shares rise 13p to 1092.5p.

Chief executive Helge Lund said: ‘We attacked the cost and efficiencies basis very early. Capital expenditure is 41 per cent lower than the same quarter a year ago.’

The group aims to make nearly £200million in savings in 2015, and the £47billion takeover by Shell is on track to complete in 2016. Lund said firms must have business models that work at low oil prices.

US oil producer Chevron, which has also been cutting costs, missed analyst expectations and reported its worst profit in nearly 13 years. Net profit fell 90 per cent to £366.7million.

Chevron chief executive John Watson said the results were weak and added: ‘Multiple efforts to improve future earnings and cash flows are under way.’

Chevron was saved from a loss by its downstream business – the refining and petrol arm – benefiting from lower oil prices, and profits quadrupled to £1.9billion.

GRAPHIC KINDLY SUPPLIED BY SHELL IRISH POLICE CORRUPTION WHISTLEBLOWER, OSSL (COPS WERE GIVEN OVER €30,000 WORTH OF FREE ALCOHOL ON SHELL’S ORDERS – AS WAS RECENTLY TESTIFIED UNDER OATH BY TWO OSSL DIRECTORS IN OPEN COURT)

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age: v.7 (Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility)

The type of long-lasting PR damage McGeveran refers to may include the website http://royaldutchshellplc.com ‘dedicated to exposing Shell’s dark side’. The website was set up by disgruntled ex-employees of Shell – Alfred and son John Donovan – who accused the company of stealing their ideas and who have dedicated two decades to embarrassing the company.

In an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle John Donovan suggests that it was anger at Shell’s ethical double standards that drove him and his father to spend so much energy into setting up the website, fighting Shell in the courts, leaking company secrets and providing an outlet for Shell whistleblowers.

“We want Shell to honour its own business principles. These [Shell General Business Principles] were launched in 1976 and people arc entitled to believe the promises that arc made in there that Shell will at all limes act with honesty and integrity and openness when they deal with people. with their own employees. with their suppliers and with the general public, but in our experience they do not – they are a ruthless, mean oil company.” (Deutsche Welle. 2012)

Donovan’s website covers Shell controversies around the world including its record in Nigeria, the United States, Ireland and the Russian Arctic, the scene of a protest in September 2013 that resulted in the arrest of 30 Greenpeace protestors on charges of piracy.

UNDER THE HEADING:

Also this 6500 number doesn’t count the contractors and BG employees. Almost all of BG employees, even senior management expect to be let go.

Anonymous127132

20 days ago (Sun 07/12/15 07:47:56 UTC)

Shell Houston Secret Reductions

While Shell maintains that it is not laying off people we have seen a drastic decrease in contractor pay and termination of contracts in order to save displaced staff jobs. Within the staff community they are forcing retirement and artificially combining roles while making personnel reapply for their own positions against applicants outside the discipline. We are even seeing forced performance improvement writeups over petty and many times made up infractions in an attempt to leverage terminations in the near future. It’s a scary, unfair, and possible illegal practice that will come back to bite them.

Anonymous114912

Comment! It’s anonymous! Reply to this post anonymously by submitting the form near the bottom of the page!

4 replies (most recent on top)

a day ago (Thu 07/30/15 14:12:27 UTC)

Boo-hoo! Don’t take it personal, people. But you are losing your jobs. My advice to you is to give thanks for the time you had with Shell, and let your manager and their manager and THEIR manager know that if they ever need help to call you up. And thank them as you give them your post-severance contact info. Much better to go out positive rather than creating a one-way dead-end. And yes, I speak from experience, having been rehired twice over the past 35 years…. Remember – its a boom and bust cyclic nature for this business. Luck to all! Anonymous127057

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16 days ago (Thu 07/16/15 00:24:43 UTC)

The company is calling this reorganization but they even said that $B1 is overhead. The are cutting talent and no even managers. The $B1 or more was loss last years for poor managers decisions. Eagleford, magnolia, unconventional in general but no one top manager is in line. Who is to blain about losing money, managers or people that is given their best effort to grow the company Shame of them 123

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16 days ago (Wed 07/15/15 19:32:59 UTC)

Just making sure I wasn’t losing my mind. I’m salary, never take lunch but may take 2-3 (5min) smoke breaks during the day. Last year I got a 1.2 rating (high performer) but it looks like this year I may not even make the cut. My manager of a few months tells me I am a poor time manager and they are treating me like a rogue employee and a child. I’ve been here 17 years and have never dealt with this. They are also writing people up for dress code, Internet use, and anything else they can find. This is both sad and detrimental to the future of this company. We spend $1000s on meals and first class flights but when it’s time to cut cost they run off their good talent. We live a miserable life here. Senior Staff

Supermarket Waitrose is in talks to open more stores in petrol stations belonging to oil and gas major Shell, despite protestations from Greenpeace.

There are currently 15 Little Waitrose shops located on Shell forecourts, but Greenpeace has argued that their presence represents an endorsement of the oil giant’s Arctic drilling programme.

Nevertheless, the two companies are in talks to ramp up the partnership.

Istvan Kapitany, Shell’s retail executive vice president, told IBTimes UK: “We’re in talks [with Waitrose] to expand, I can’t say how many we’ll have but there will definitely be more, it depends on where we have the space.”

Kapitany added that the growth in popularity of convenience store shopping has meant there is strong demand from consumers to shop as well as fill up at Shell’s 1,000 UK petrol stations.

However, Sara Ayech, Arctic campaigner at Greenpeace, described Shell as “one of the biggest environmental baddies out there”.

She added: “By partnering with Shell, Waitrose is endorsing Shell’s destructive quest for Arctic oil which threatens the pristine Arctic environment and the incredible creatures that live there.

“Waitrose has built its reputation on being an ethical choice for consumers, so it is deeply disappointing that it has forgotten the public promise it made to the Arctic and its customers.”

In 2012, following a campaign by Greenpeace and its supporters, Waitrose said it would not open any further stores in Shell stations in 2012-13.

On Greenpeace’s opposition to the tie-up, Kapitany said: “Everyone has the right to their opinion. We’ve tried to have dialogue with them and we’re open to further dialogue on how to do things better if they come to us.”

Shell also has a tie up with Costa and the coffee brand has hundreds of outlets in Shell stations.

A spokesperson for Waitrose said: “We have opened a small number of branches on forecourts over the last couple of years – two in 2012, thirteen in 2014 – and we’re continuing to evaluate future possibilities.”

Shell said that it has no further plans for forecourt expansion or for new tie ups with other retailers.

Oil giant Shell has resumed offshore drilling off the coast of Alaska following a two-day delay by Greenpeace activists. The move marks the first time Shell has conducted exploratory drilling in the Arctic since 2012.

Date 01.08.2015

Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced on Friday that drilling operations had resumed in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska on Thursday afternoon.

The resumption marks the first time Shell has conducted exploratory drilling in the Arctic since 2012, due to inclement weather and issues with equipment.

“In the days to come, the team aboard the Transocean Polar Pioneer will work to complete the top portion of the well in anticipation of drilling to total depth once the Fennica [icebreaker] arrives on site,” Shell said in a statement to AFP news agency.

“We remain committed to operating sagely and responsibly and adding to Shell’s long history of exploration offshore Alaska,” Shell said.

The announcement follows a two-day delay of the company’s Fennica icebreaker by Greenpeace activists, who dangled from a bridge in order to block the ship from reaching its destination.

Greenpeace environmental activists are critical of Shell’s drilling in the Arctic Ocean, and believe that the consequences may be detrimental to the area’s wildlife.

However, the protesters were forced to vacate the bridge after a US judge threatened fines of $2,500 (2,270 euros) an hour in damages to the oil giant.